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Just Add Magic
It's interesting to see a recent trend of internet streaming services start making their own unique content. Netflix has created shows like BoJack Horseman and House of Cards. And I don't know why Wikipedia calls these "television shows" because they've... never been on television, but whatever. Also in the competition with this internet streaming series is Amazon Prime. That's right, Amazon has its own original series that they've made and produced. A couple of them - Ronja the Robber's Daughter and Lost in Oz - are animated. I'd look at them for review, but when it comes to Amazon Prime shows/footage, it is borderline impossible to get it off amazon prime - whether you bought it or not/have the right to do so or not. But that's another story (although please stop asking me "why don't you use footage from amazon.") One show that I have looked at is Just Add Magic. It's not animated, but I thought that it was interesting enough to talk about here. Right now it's two seasons in, and I'm talking about here because I thought that it was interesting. Just Add Magic ''is a live-action kids' show, and that tends to come with a lot of baggage. Live action children's shows tend to have the worst acting, the worst effects, the worst writing, and basically devolves all of the characters into typical stereotypes that have been seen time and again. This is one of the best live-action kids' shows that I've ever seen. It's actually really good. Like... if I could actually get some damn footage, I'd review it positively, despite the fact that I don't review live action things, good. It's based on a book from 2010, called ''Just Add Magic. I've never read it because until I watched this show, I'd never heard of it, so I don't know how accurate it is to the actual book. The main story of the show is that three young girls - Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah find a cook book in the attic that allows them to make magic spells. It's interesting, despite how obvious it is to relate "potion making" to cooking, it's rarely done, at least from what I've seen. But the general concept of kids learning to use magic is pretty well-done. That's not a bad thing because it's done very well here. It uses tropes that we've seen before and does a lot of interesting things with them. Honestly, watching the show kind of brings me back to watching the Harry Potter movies/reading the books, and not just because of the magic. In each of the seasons there are ongoing mysteries, and the show is very good at using Chekov's gun. Things briefly mentioned in one episode bring on major reveals in later episodes. On top of that, it's hard to know who is being fully honest because people aren't exactly what they seem. There are characters you thought were good that turn out to be bad, and vice-versa. It's surprising, but it's not out of character. There are two seasons so far. The first season is more (although not completely) episodic, with each episode dealing with a random spell and its effects - a spell that makes people smarter; a spell lets you read minds; etc. The ongoing mystery is a bit of a back seat until the last couple of episodes. The second season is much more written as one continuous story, although there are still the recipe spells that only take effect during one episode. The mystery and a direct villain is the focal point of season 2 and I think that it's much better for it as the tension makes it easier to binge watch the entire season. And that villain, by the way, is played by Zach Callison, also known as the voice of Steven Universe. He doesn't sound like Steven at all, so I had to find out after I had watched the entire season. Is the series perfect? Nah, I noticed some writing hiccups here and there. In one season two episode, their friend Jake, just runs up to the girls and eats some of the food that they prepared... even though at this point in the series, he should really know that that was a bad move. But I've only noticed that once or twice. As a... notoriously picky eater though, it does seem odd how no one has any hesitation to eat any of the food, based on its flavor (with the exception of a really spicy meal). Everyone likes every food and there's no food that anyone hates. Everything from beef sandwich to oysters to schnitzel, everyone likes. I get that it would kind of mess up the story a bit, but it does get distracting every now and then. If you've got an amazon prime account, I'd strongly recommend checking it out. I don't want to say too much because it is an easy series to spoil. If I told you too much about season 2 for instance, it could spoil the entirety of season 1. Category:Miscellaneous